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This writer proud to have a place on city's Walk of Fame
Thursday, September 25, 2008
This is a special day for me as I am inducted to the Dayton Walk of Fame along with community leaders Calvin Werner, Louis Polk, William Goodwin and the Dayton Triangles football team of the 1920s.
The ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Center for Regional Cooperation at 1100 W. Third St. It is free and open to the public. Plaques are installed in the sidewalk in the historic Wright-Dunbar business village carrying information about the inductees.
There have been 106 noted Daytonians who have been previously honored. Of that number, eight are associated with the Dayton Daily News, more than any other Dayton company. That too makes me proud.
Here are the members of my newspaper family whose names are permanently imbedded in the Walk of Fame that stretches along West Third Street in the area where the Wright brothers' bike shop was situated:
• Gov. James M. Cox, the founder and owner of the Dayton Daily News, and eventually Cox Enterprises, which has newspapers, radio, television stations and other businesses. Gov. Cox, who died in 1957, was also a major force in politics, representing Dayton in Congress for two terms, serving as governor of Ohio for three terms and in 1920 was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
• Si Burick was the sports editor and popular sports columnist for this newspaper for 58 years. He died in 1986.
• Erma Bombeck, who died in 1996, was a humor columnist who started in Dayton and eventually was syndicated in 900 newspapers. She was the author of 12 books.
• Charlotte Reeve Conover, who died in 1940, was an author and historian. She was editor of the Woman's Page of the Dayton Daily News and wrote a weekly column called Mrs. Conover's Corner.
• Ritter Collett was sports editor for the Journal-Herald and later the Dayton Daily News during his 20-year newspaper career. Collett, inducted into the writers wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, died in 2001.
• Mike Peters is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Dayton Daily News, and is the creator of the comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm." His work is syndicated in newspapers worldwide.
• Roz Young was an educator and newspaper columnist for more than half a century. She was the author of biographies of the Wright brothers and Charles Kettering, and often wrote about her beloved cat, Edith. She died in 2005.
• Milton Caniff, who died in 1988, was known worldwide for his two major comic strips, "Terry and the Pirates" and "Steve Canyon." Most of his career was centered in New York City, but his first cartoons appeared in the Dayton Daily News when he was a student at Stivers High School.
In addition, Don Wayne, a longtime anchor for WHIO-TV, Channel 7, part of the Cox Communications family, is also a member of the Dayton Walk of Fame. He died in 1997.
I cherish this honor.
Dale Huffman wants your suggestions and story ideas. He'd like to share a story about you, your family, or a friend. This column is for you. Send e-mail to dhuffman@DaytonDailyNews.com or write to Dale at 1611 S. Main St. Dayton, OH 45409. Fax: (937) 225-2489. Phone: (937) 225-2272.
